For reasons of economy and convenience, so-called single use, disposable, or throw-away photographic cameras have gained widespread popularity in recent years. See e.g., U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,361,111; 5,339,127; 5,235,364; 4,954,857; 4,855774; 4,833,495; 4,831,398; 4,884,087; and 4,751,536. Such cameras--which are essentially film cassettes provided with inexpensive, unembellished, and/or spartan film exposure and advancing mechanisms--contain a conventional photographic film cartridge, preloaded with standard 35 mm photographic film, and ready for exposure. Following film exposure, the single-use camera is given to a photofinisher who tears and/or breaks open the camera housing, and removes the film cartridge. The film cartridge is then broke open and the exposed filmstrip withdrawn for processing.
While single-use cameras preloaded with standard 35 mm film are--perhaps, on account of their current commercial prominence--readily available and convenient, until the return of the finished prints, the photographer can neither view a captured image, nor ascertain the failure to do so. The photographer must wait.
Self-developing type cameras employing self-developing film have enjoyed widespread commercial success because they allow the user to obtain the instant results of their photographic efforts. While generally dedicated for repeated use, there are continuing efforts to provide the expedience and other numerous benefits of self-developing film in a single-use camera See, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 4,962,398, issued to J. D. Sorg et al. on Oct. 9, 1990, and U.S. Pat. No. 4,518,235, issued to R. K. Reed et al. on May 21, 1985, Reference is also made to commonly assigned U.S. Pat. No. 5,453,804, issued to James M. Cloherty and Philip R. Norris on Sep. 26, 1995; commonly assigned U.S. Pat. No. 5,103,249, issued to Lauren Keene on Apr. 7, 1992; commonly assigned U.S. Pat. No. 3,672,275, issued to Bruce K. Johnson on Jun. 27, 1972; commonly assigned U.S. Pat, No. 2,930,301, issued to Edwin H. Land and Vaito K. Eloranta on Mar. 29, 1960, and commonly assigned U.S. Patent Application Ser. No. 08/549,654, filed by Philip R Norris and Kenneth C. Waterman on Oct. 27, 1995.
Though the approaches described in the commonly assigned patents and application are well suited for the accomplishment of their particular goals, there is a continuing desire to devise other approaches for processing self-developable film in the context of a single-use camera. The desire, however, is frustrated by oftentimes conflicting cost and performance considerations. For any given objective, a sound balance between low cost and good performance is difficult to both identify and to accomplish.